Sometimes They Come Back
by EvaH2Os
Summary: House, Foreman, Chase, Taub, Kutner, Thirteen, and Cameron are each brought back to the hospital and forced to deal with their issues...only they're locked in a room to do it together.
1. Ambition has given way to desperation

…And sometimes they come back.

Everyone has secrets; everyone makes the kind of mistakes that can make you want to run from your life. But eventually you have to come back. So what if you attempted suicide, are dying of a crippling disease, went crazy, cheated on your wife, ran away from your husband, murdered someone, or followed your dreams at the expense of your family? It has to be dealt with eventually.

This story mostly involves House, Cameron, Kutner, Thirteen, Chase, Taub, and Foreman. Wilson and Cuddy will get mentions but that's really about it.

The first few chapters will be a little bit short and will go through each of their POVs, starting with House.

Let me know what you think.

* * *

You went crazy. For a few weeks you couldn't tell what was real from what wasn't. You saw Amber, you spoke to her, you two shared a bathtub as you accidentally tried to murder Chase. You could feel her as clearly as you felt the constant throbbing of your thigh. She was real.

But she wasn't. You lost it, went bananas, flew over the cuckoo's nest, whatever anyone wanted to call it. You were the guy strapped to a bed as doctors over analyzed your every behavior until just a few weeks ago.

You're lucky though. Your problems could be blamed on the pills, your childhood, your inability to connect to real people; really your life is a mess of clichéd problems. But, you know that has to be better than those born just plain crazy. That – one might not recover from. But, here you are, medical license and all, just as good (and moderately less fucked up) than you were two years ago, before everything started going down the rabbit hole.

Before you pushed yourself into everyone's business and had a dead body sized stack of issues out in the open forcing you into insanity.

You knew Chase was going to do something he's regret with Dibala, you knew Thirteen was dying, you knew about Cameron's unshakable moral compass, and you had no idea about Kutner, but you pushed them all anyhow. Maybe, too far. No, definitely too far. You've always had some sort of insatiable need to fuck up what isn't broken. It's because you can see the problems in everything, you can always spot the cracks in the foundation, and you cant help but peak inside, shoving your head so far down the hole that you don't know which way is up anymore.

So you suppose that it's not terrible that you're back here. You know that to rebuild anything you first need a clean foundation. When Cuddy first called, you told her you were done. You really had every intention of never coming back to Princeton Plainsboro Teaching Hospital ever again. You thought you could take a move out of Cameron's book and get the hell out of dodge.

But, then she manipulated you in. Luring you with the promise of a pay check you didn't really need considering your mooching skills, and a waver in her voice when she told you she didn't care that hallucinated a night with her. You could tell she had feelings for you from the cracking in her voice, so you picked yourself up and came in.

Then she let something slip out about a session for the team with Psych partially designed by legal to make sure the team functions properly. You shrugged, figured you could catch a few hours of rest while your baby doctors shared their feelings, and so you showed up on time for your first day back.

Then you saw Cameron nervously seated in the front corner of the classroom Cuddy had told you to show up in, Chase sitting in the farthest chair from her across the room. Thirteen slouched in the third row, Taub with his head on the table in the back, Foreman sitting directly behind her, Kutner sitting by the window staring off, and Cate, the psychologist you once saved from a broken toe, standing at the podium holding a stack of note cards and looking at you like she was about to wring you out until everyone of your past sins sat sloppily out on the floor below your twisted corpse.

"I want you to write down your problem. I want all of those bottled up emotions, every skeleton from your closet, and the reason why you don't want to be here summed up in a few lines small enough to be written on this note card. It's just for you, but this session will be pointless if you write down something stupid." She gave you an extra look.

So, you did it. You don't know why you complied, but you figured you could give this woman a chance. A little part of you fell for her a while back, so maybe she had a piece of your trust that no one else had.

You wrote how you'd gone crazy, how from your deep loneliness your mind conjured friends, how years of not trusting anyone and not caring if the means justified the extremes fucked you up. You let your emotional walls go and handed the card back to her so she could tear it up like she promised.

Then she read it aloud. And then Cameron's, Kutner's, Thirteen's, Taub's, Chase's, and finally Foreman's.

You all stared at each other awkwardly, tears threatening to spill from a few eyes, and Cate walked out. You heard a click from the door, and snapped your heard over to see what she had done. A white note slipped under the doorway and it took a full five minutes before someone, Cameron, stood up to read the note.

"I'll let you out when you've dealt with your shit." She read without emotion. You all looked at each other, both ready to kill someone and ready to curl up in a ball and cry.

"Who wants to go first?" Cameron asked, slamming the note onto a table with a frown.


	2. There are things that we've done

Thanks for letting me know what you guys think, and thank you to iyimgrace for reminding me that I completely misspelled Cate's name. Also, the next chapters will move things along a bit faster. This chapter is in Cameron's POV.

-E

* * *

Your first boyfriend used to call you Cherry. It was a pet name that you had assumed came from the color of your lips in the chilly Chicago air. He'd ask if he could kiss your cherry lips and you'd nod as young love took over. Then days had turned into months and it was suddenly your one-year anniversary.

You were barely fifteen, and he thought the perfect way to commemorate the occasion would be to have sex. You weren't ready, and you told him. He was pissed, "stop being so fucking cherry," he'd said and you realized the nickname had a whole other meaning.

That night you'd broken up after hours of yelling and crying. Cherry came from you're honesty and morality, traits you'd always taken pride in until that night.

"I chopped down the cherry tree"

He'd mocked you with Washington's famed words (one's that weren't actually said by him too!) because like the past president you could tell no lies, do no harm, and according to him would hold onto your virginity until you shriveled up and no one would touch you.

And you had held on to it for a while. You hadn't had sex until you were married. You really were Cherry, but by then you'd learned to love yourself for it again.

But, you've always known that life would be a lot easier if you weren't so morally conscious. You could have been the popular girl in high school if you hadn't felt so bad about making fun of other girls, and you could have gotten an A in P-Chem if you hadn't refused your TA's passes. But, you wouldn't have been you.

When you married Chase, you thought you were done having to defend your way of life. You thought you'd be married, live happily in love, close enough to the boss so that you could slowly try to fix him, but far enough so that he couldn't manipulate you, and then maybe eventually have a family. But, you'd failed at step three. House had manipulated you. He'd "jumped down the rabbit hole" as Cate had read a loud, and when he came back he got you and Chase back onto his team.

You figured it would be temporary; maybe a fun little reunion, but it had ruined your life. Chase had purposefully killed a patient, and you would never be able to forgive him. You tried tricking yourself into blaming House and running as far from him as possible with Chase at your side, but Chase had knocked that option down. He had confronted you about your inner lie, which normally you'd appreciate, but he'd sealed his own fate.

Your only option was to run away from him. He had taken a human life, destroyed a soul. Then he lied to you about it, and when he finally came clean you two were left in a ground zero that you would never have been able to build back up.

So, you'd gone home. Stayed with your brother, and had been mentally tortured everyday as his three children and sweet southern wife existed around you in perfect harmony. Then Cuddy had called, and it seemed like it may have been the right time to come back. You hadn't even started divorce proceedings with Chase and you still had years worth of your things inside of the apartment you once shared. You figured you'd stay in Princeton for a few months, finish out your contract as the ER head, file for divorce, talk to the friends you abandoned without a word, then leave when you had closure (the way emotionally healthy people do it, you'd figured).

She'd told you about the Psych workshop that legal had required, and you'd obliged. You'd even thought it could be a great idea for you and Chase to attend in the same room. You'd arrived first, and had been surprised to see Thirteen enter the room. You two had worked together in the ER, but she had always been too emotionally distant to get close to. Then Chase came in and sat as far away from you as possible, then Foreman and then Kutner and Taub.

You figured it would be okay, you liked what Catehad to say, and you'd confessed your sins. You wrote about how guiltless you felt while leaving Chase, how you were sad your life here was ending, how you'd spent the majority of your time in Chicago drinking and sleeping around like most people get out of their systems in college. You wrote about how you were just in your 30's and had been divorced twice. How you weren't sure if you'd be able to do it again, how this was not your life plan, and worse of all how you weren't sure how much you cared anymore.

Then she'd read House's card out loud and you couldn't believe what he had to go through, or how you'd just learnt more about him from a flashcard than he had ever shared with you during your fellowship.

And, before you'd gotten over the shock, she'd read everyone else's, including yours. Your ears felt like they were going to bleed, like you'd just heard so much forbidden information, things that really were none of your business.

You were, are, sitting in a room with a man who'd witnessed a murder, two who'd been abused as children, two who had attempted suicide, and the pile of fucked up shit went on. You were locked in a room of human catastrophes, whom you'd worked beside for quite a long time without ever really knowing.

Then she'd locked you together, and you had read her note to the room while five faces glared at you. A tear dropped down Thirteen's cheek, and just the sight of seeing someone so emotionally strong on the verge of a breakdown brought tears to your eyes. House was rubbing his temples, plotting what to do, and you could see Kutner eyeing the window, wondering if he could jump.

This was fucked.


	3. Nothing really matters when you're gone

Chrissyann344- I know he's dead, but I've chosen to keep him alive in this story (which I normally don't, but he made sense here). Hopefully, you'll understand after this chapter.

Thanks for your feedback, everyone. This chapter is in Kutner's POV.

* * *

You find yourself constantly watching Thirteen. It's not that you have some sort of preteen crush on her (not that you wouldn't date her if she'd let you), but in an odd way she's everything you wish you could be. She's confident, headstrong, and can keep a secret unlike you. You constantly find yourself slipping personal facts into ordinary conversations.

You can't believe she's crying right now. She's not exactly bawling, but tears are coming from her eyes and she's making no attempt to hide them. You can see Cameron's hands practically twitching to stop from comforting her. House is also in complete shock, he's actually too surprised to make fun of her.

Foreman comes over, but she holds out a hand as if telling him not to bother. Sadistically, that makes you a little bit happy. You never understood how she ended up with him.

Thirteen wipes her eyes, and heads towards the door.

"I'm pretty sure she actually locked it," House grumbles, but Thirteen tries anyway. She bangs her fist a few times, and then turns her back to the door and slides into a sitting position. She rubs her hand from the pain of banging it against the wooden door.

"Can someone call maintenance?" Cameron asks.

"I don't think Blue is going to be up for doing me any favors," House mumbles.

"We don't have to tell _Lou _that you're in here," Foreman says, as he pulls an iphone from his pocket.

"The classrooms don't get service." Cameron reminds everyone, not that you ever knew in the first place.

Thirteen continues to cry softly, and before you realize what you're doing, you've gotten up and have taken a seat next to her on the floor with your back pressed against the door as well. You constantly find yourself doing things with out realizing it though. It's like you're gone a lot of the time and your body is on autopilot.

She puts her head against your chest, and you cannot believe she's letting you comfort her. You feel awake suddenly, and an immense feeling of guilt washes over you.

You know that you have a sort of closeness with Thirteen that few others in this room have. You also know you're partially guilty for this. Thirteen was the one who found you when you tried to shoot yourself. Sure, Foreman came in too, but Thirteen found you first and Foreman is pretty emotionally resilient.

Thirteen's head is against your chest almost same way she held you the day she found you bleeding and slipping away from life. She sat with you in the ambulance as you drifted in and out of consciousness. She's at least 98% responsible for you being here today, and you don't really know if that's a good thing or not a lot of the time.

"Do you want to speak first?" Cameron asks, coming over to you two. She also takes a seat on the floor, but she doesn't try to touch Thirteen. She probably realizes that it would only make her feel more uncomfortable.

"I feel humiliated," she says, managing to sound relatively clear despite her tears. She sits up, you miss the feeling of her warm skin against your shirt, and wipes her eyes again.

"And we don't?" Taub asks sullenly.

"This situation sucks for everyone," Chase says, giving Taub a glare.

"Look, I don't want you all feeling bad for me. I'm dealing with things. I'm in therapy. My life is a million times better than it was when I was in New York, and I do talk about my problems," Thirteen explains.

"Just not with us," You find yourself saying. She gives you a look, and you know you had no right to say that. No one knew about your depression. You learned to bottle that up a long time ago.

"What do you want know?" she says, getting defensive and angry. Her shoulders heave and your eyes look to hers to see if she's going to cry again. She doesn't though; she just takes a long breath, "My mom died when I was ten. She started having symptoms when I was about six or seven. She used to torture me. Never physically, at least not on purpose, but she hated me." Thirteen explains, "and I hated her. She used to tell me that I was ugly, and I would never amount to anything. She used to call me the deviant."

"Wow," you hear Cameron whisper. Thirteen doesn't seem to notice. She rubs her hands together to comfort herself while trying to figure out what to say next. You don't think you've ever heard Thirteen say more than one sentence about herself.

"She hated the way I looked, the way I dressed, the way I treated my sister, she hated my friends. Everything annoyed her, and my dad tried so hard to keep her comfortable." Thirteen goes on, "When she died, my dad was a great parent. But, I already felt like he had chosen her over me. I did things to piss him off, and he took it. I did drugs and I broke curfews. The first time I ever dated a girl it was just to piss him off. My grandparents were coming in for the weekend, and they were very religious so I thought it could be funny to invite a girl to dinner. They freaked out, but he accepted it."

"He knows you appreciated him," you say, putting a hand on her shoulder. She shrugs it off.

"I made his life hell. I'm probably the reason he's grey. I felt so bad about it later, I felt guilty about everything. I used that girl I took to dinner because I knew she was the class lesbian. I toyed with her feelings, and I made a lot of lives more difficult." She says.

You understand the idea of being weighed down by guilt. You constantly feel guilty about things. Since you were a kid you've been depressed. You had everything and yet you couldn't be happy. So then you feel worse about how you cant be happy and before you know it you're drowning in guilt over not being able to control your own emotions. You had an idyllic childhood with your parents. They owned a convenience shop and you remember going around everyday after school and getting to pick any candy item you wanted, you usually snuck two and your dad would wink at you and not mention it to your mom.

Then they died, and the Kutner family adopted you. They too were perfect. They loved you no matter how you did in school or how aggressive you were on the playground. They gave you everything you needed and put you through college and med school. They became your parents. You had two perfect lives, and you still tried to kill yourself. You are a terrible person.

"Teenagers by definition are miserable human beings," Foreman says, "I stole a car."

"I told my mother I hated her as she was dying." Thirteen says, a little louder than she had been speaking before, "and my father doesn't even speak to me,"

"You could call him," Cameron pipes in.

"I don't think he would talk to me," Thirteen shrugs.

"You could go see him." Cameron tries again.

"He wouldn't even recognize me," Thirteen pulls her legs into her chest, "I'm not the girl he raised,"


	4. Discover me, infinity

Thirteen's POV:

Everyone is staring at you after your last statement. They have no idea what you were talking about. They think you're a little bit crazy, and maybe you are. You thought your flashcard gave it away, but you suppose "I did everything in my power to be a different person, to be the beautiful doctor that no one thought I could be" was slightly ambiguous.

You make eye contact with Taub. He knows what you meant.

"You meant that literally," House comments noticing you stare at Taub.

"I was nothing special before I came here," You shrug. You got average marks in school, you were your school's worst volleyball player, and you were stuck somewhere between average and ugly (probably closer to the latter).

In High School, your dad had let you get a nose job, thinking it might make you feel more confident. He felt guilty about your mother having torn you down, and worse that your little sister was growing up to be stunning. In college, you had managed to shed the thirty-five pounds of fat you'd gained during your tumultuous adolescence and a round of accutane had finally cleared your complexion. Then in med school, you'd moved from glasses to contacts, and a month before moving to Princeton, just two months before meeting House, you realized you were finally attractive. But, life still kind of sucked.

"Do you know how many plastic surgeries I used to do in a week? It's pretty common," Taub says. His indifference is a comforting reaction.

"It wasn't the breasts," House says, standing up, leaning over the desk, and squinting at you. You roll your eyes and button your blouse up higher.

"Rhinoplasty," You say, not liking the way everyone is staring at you or the sudden feel of your collar choking you. Cameron looks shocked and you feel a flash of hatred pass over you. You've always secretly resented the type of girls who were born beautiful, much like your mother and sister. You know Cameron's probably been adorable since birth, but you try to push the jealousy out of your head.

"He did a nice job," Taub comments. You can feel your cheeks turning red, and you miss the feeling of Kutner stroking your hair.

You feel like teenager again, all of a sudden. You remember being called terrible things in school, and coming home to hear worse from your mother. You remember once when you were nine and the boy you liked called you fat, you came home sobbing to your mother who told you that he was right.

Every time something got better or you changed a little bit you thought maybe you'd finally be pretty, but it only made things worse. You remember getting your braces off and thinking that now you'd have a nice smile, or when you'd gotten the nose job. You'd woken up feeling more uncomfortable than you had ever felt before, and once it healed nothing changed. You were just ugly with nice features.

You'd been surprised your first night at Princeton when you'd been hit on in the bar. You'd taken the guy home with you and never looked back. Your nights became a string of one-night stands because you liked the feeling of being wanted. If you're dad knew how you were living your life, he'd be ashamed.

Or worse, he'd see the way you looked now and be proud. You know that doesn't sound worse, but it would confirm that all people really care about was looks. And, seeing that from your own father would really hurt.

You do think about him sometimes, and Amy. You haven't seen her more than six times since you left for college. You avoided coming home from breaks like no other.

Amy has to be big now. In your head she's still twelve, but you know from the birthday cards you send every year that she's twenty now. You feel like a terrible person. You're a deadbeat daughter and sister.

And to make things worse no one knows you have a sister. No one really even knew about your dad until fairly recently. You remember telling Taub what a great dad he was while you were treating the father daughter pair with Mediterranean Familial Fever. You remember the way that little girl looked at you while she was numb. She reminded you of yourself. Yourself now that is, when you were her age every little thing still hurt.

"So you had a big nose? Big deal," Taub adds after an awkward silence.

"It wasn't just that." House comments. You look up at him. The thought that Lucas may have uncovered some old yearbook pictures briefly flashes through your mind, but you quickly dismiss it. House wouldn't have kept it a secret; he couldn't even keep your car lease a secret.

"I was ugly," You say. You still feel ugly, but you leave that part out.

"You were awkward, most kids are." Kutner says, scooting closer to you.

"You don't know the half of it." You sigh. You aren't speaking very loud, but everyone in the room is leaning in towards where you're sitting to hear you.

"I knew," Kutner says. You stare at him stunned for a moment.

"And you didn't share?" House says, annoyed. Foreman just looks confused.

"I googled you," He shrugs, "when we first met. I thought you were too pretty to have never modeled or anything." He looks embarrassed, so you don't push the issue.

"You're google search turned up more than my two hundred dollar an hour private eye?" House asks. He looks skeptical of Kutner, and you wish he could have just left the situation alone.

"Try adding in things like hometown or zip code." Kutner shrugs, sheepishly.

"What'd she look like?" House asks. Cameron shoots him a look.

"I had bad skin, and 80's hair, and a lot of baby fat." You practically yell at him, "Can we stop this now. I used to be ugly, okay?"

"How ugly?" House can't stop smiling.

"Shut the fuck up House," Kutner barks.

"It doesn't matter," Foreman says. You can tell all of this is making him feel uncomfortable. He's realizing he knew nothing about you, and clearly doesn't like how close you are with Kutner. But, really, he needs to grow up. Kutner is just a nice guy.

"You're living a lie," House says, preparing for a rant, but Taub spins around in his seat and cuts him off.

"You're the one who tried to kill someone." Taub spits out. You like how everyone is coming to your defense, it makes you feel like part of something here.

"But I'm not the one who actually did," House bites back. Chase looks up slowly, he rubs his temples and looks pensive – like he's not sure whether to punch House again or break down and cry.

Chase stands up, and you can tell shits about to go down. You almost wish the attention was back on you because even that would actually be better than a fight.


	5. Seconds tick like boulders

Sorry, this chapter pretty much took forever. I've just been swamped this week with work and school and my new found twitter obsession (the link is on my profile if you want to follow me lol I'm pretty boring but twitter is amazing in a 'i cant believe ive sunk to this low' kind of way).

* * *

Chase's POV:

You killed someone. Well, not someone – a dictator – the man was a fucking murderer himself. You committed a plethora of crimes on both the legal and moral tracks. And you know what? Nothing happened. You weren't indicted, you weren't smote by lightning, and for a while you had kept it a secret. Now of course, everyone knows, but that's Princeton-Plainsboro, too small a town for anything to be forgotten.

You do feel bad though; you know if you told anyone this you'd come off as callous and uncaring. Two things, which you know you aren't. Maybe you're an asshole, and you tend to ask for forgiveness instead of permission, but some think that's a good think.

Apparently, not your wife though. You want to remind her of the time she drugged a patient so he couldn't leave granted that situation didn't end well either. But, she left. She kissed you on the cheek and left town for two months.

You loved her, you still do. You've loved her since the day you told a teenage patient to look down her shirt for pain relief and she laughed at your immaturity. You knew then she was a woman you could love.

But, now she's back, and on a Tuesday no less. You feel like her presence is mocking you because you have no idea what she wants with you. You'd like to talk to her, but at the same time you really don't want to. You just want her back in bed with you after late nights of work, and sitting across from you at the dinner table holding your hand. You loved moments with her.

You know you deserve this though, and you can see things from her point of view. You just see things from your own point of view clearer, and you don't think what you did was that terrible. Well, you do, but you think the alternative would have been worse.

You're confusing yourself when all you really want to do right now is hit someone. Namely, House. He needs to stop bringing up what drove your wife away.

"Don't, Chase," Cameron raises her voice. Your attention is turned from House to her. She's exerting a power over you that you don't know if she should still have.

"We both know I have a hell of a hook, House." You growl instead. Cameron looks relieved, but she's just staring at you know. It's as if they've all suddenly decided it's your turn to speak, and you don't want to. You don't like to speak about yourself or your problems.

"What?" You ask, looking around. No one is saying anything. Foreman looks at you sadly, as if he too feels guilty. House doesn't really seem to care, he seems amused by this if anything. Taub looks frustrated, and Kutner isn't even looking at you. His focus is still on a horrified looking Thirteen.

You take a moment to study her. She is beautiful, you prefer petite blondes to her type of in your face fierce beauty, but no one could call her ugly. You realize how little you know about her. It's hard to imagine her looking differently, but her personality makes a lot more sense now. She's always intensely confident or an emotional wreck, the latter being a state that one rarely sees, but her lack of middle ground seems more normal now.

You two actually have a lot in common. You both did drugs, you both had rough childhoods in a one-parent household, and you both don't tend to talk about things. Yet, you've never actually really spoken to her. Not about anything serious anyway, which you suppose are the only topics that connect you. You doubt you could start a conversation with "so what was your favorite drug in high school?"

"Who did you try to kill?" You ask House, trying to clear your head of these racing thoughts, and get the attention off of you. Everyone looks a bit confused.

"You," Foreman says, as if you should have known.

"Me?" You ask, feeling more confused than upset.

"Our engagement party, strawberry body cream." Cameron reminds you as if its perfectly normal for her to be bringing that day up. You feel a chill come over your body. How could he have known?

"Don't beat yourself up over that House, even you aren't always expected to know every detail of everything." Taub says, guilt pouring from his voice, "I took a shot too, and I didn't know. Sorry, I said anything."

"I should have known," House says, with no hint of humor. He actually feels guilty? Weird.

"I'm not mad about that," You say. House shrugs his shoulders, and you know under the surface this is a huge moment for you two. You know you just let him off the hook big time, but you cant be mad at him with Cameron in the room. You cant get over the fact that she brings up your engagement party like its no big deal. Or that she came back without even calling you first, or that she left you in the first place.

"He could have died." Cameron says, not seeming to understand why this moment isn't so huge for either of you. You're allergic to strawberries, everyone's favorite fruit, it had happened before, but why does she suddenly care? You wonder if she wants to get back together, but you quickly shoot that idea out of your mind. Cameron isn't really the forgive and forget type.

"Like you care," You find yourself muttering before you have time to process what you just said. Her eyes turn a sort of grey color and her jaw clenches.

"Life is sacred, why am I the only one who seems to be able to remember that? It's amazing, it's a gift, and it's fleeting." She says, standing up off the floor and taking a seat in the corner of the room. She looks like she's just been hit in the gut. You fight the urge to comfort her because you know she's not yours anymore, and worse it's your fault she feels like this on so many levels. And, you cant even imagine how she actually feels because you have no idea how you feel. You keep going from mad to sad to crazy in the span of

"Life's not sacred," Kutner mumbles, and you thank god for his weird statement because now you have something else to focus on. Thirteen's head jerks up and hits him in the chin.

"Don't you dare say that," She says, scooting herself away from him, "You have no idea what it was like when we thought we had lost you."

"I lost me a long time ago," he says, sadly.


End file.
